On this episode of Stories From the Wild, I interview my close friend Peter Griffin who attended a Sacred Hunting experience for his first trip. In the experience, he successfully killed a female hog, which was a profound and life-changing experience as he recounts. We discuss and share the sadness that arises in the process of killing an animal and the necessity of tapping into this archetype for being a part of the Earth. Hopefully, this provides context for what it's like for a total beginner...
Nov 17, 2020•40 min•Ep. 40
Stefanos Sifandos is a relationship coach, facilitator, and friend. In this episode, we discuss how our wounds, shadows, and fears get in the way of finding our true mission and purpose. Stef shares his own past rife with sexual trauma, anger, violence, and ultimately, the integration of his shadow when caught in infidelity. He has alchemized his wounds and pain into a coaching and facilitation practice helping thousands of men and women relate with themselves and each other.
Nov 10, 2020•42 min•Ep. 39
Jordan Bowditch is a good friend and self-described "conscious bro". He's co-founder of Kinda Conscious humor videos. He shares his process of hunting an aoudad replete with self-doubt, fear, courage, sadness, and elation. He finished that hunting excursion with an epic, challenging hike with the weight of the entire animal over his shoulders. In the challenges of carrying that load, he received even more life lessons. Jordan is a great storyteller and this podcast is a vivid representation of w...
Nov 03, 2020•35 min•Ep. 38
Addiction comes in many forms and flavors. For Michael Cazayoux, it started early and involved numerous substances. After years of rehabilitation, Michael is one of the few who have been able to return to recreational use of some substances with a newfound series of practices that keep him in integrity. He is a close personal friend who has grown considerably during his relationship with addiction and is now creating live experiences in nature to facilitate growth for others.
Oct 27, 2020•39 min•Ep. 37
Cal Callahan is a friend who had a long and successful career as a financial trader. But at a certain point, he wasn't happy and didn't feel authentic in his role. He did what few successful people really know how to do: get out while he's ahead. Cal has a humble perspective on life, which is refreshing and rare for someone in their mid-40's. A reflection of that is The Great Unlearn podcast that he hosts. If you feel "stuck" in a career position, I highly recommend checking out his wisdom....
Oct 20, 2020•40 min•Ep. 37
On this episode of Stories From the Wild, I discuss a wild goat hunt where I needed a bit of ingenuity to get the job done. The biggest revelation is what I learned about death and how my perspective changed from witnessing the death of this animal. The Stories From the Wild series is meant to provide context for what hunting can be through my and other peoples' experiences. Listening is great, but hopefully, it provides motivation to get into the field and grow yourself.
Oct 13, 2020•22 min•Ep. 36
JP Sears is a comedian and friend hosting Awaken with JP and Ultra Spiritual. He’s hilarious in person and in his videos, but he’s also a deep thinker about life, purpose, and fulfillment. This was a great conversation on his back porch that everyone can appreciate.
Oct 06, 2020•52 min•Ep. 35
Stories From the Wild is a new series I have created to share my and other hunting stories. The purpose is to tell stories about the wild places we go while hunting and to share how hunting can be a spiritual practice for those who are inclined to view it that way. This particular hunt involved an intimate encounter with a young female deer for whom I will be forever grateful.
Sep 22, 2020•24 min•Ep. 33
As an indigenous person of the Apalech Clan in Australia, Tyson Yunkaporta has experience hunting and tracking beyond the reductionist practice that includes “skills” and “knowledge”. Rather, he discusses how to become more connected to the land, one with the land, and part of it rather than an observer or bystander that must impose our will. This second part of the interview with Tyson Yunkaporta is especially important for anyone looking to re-connect to Earth and all that means mentally, spir...
Sep 15, 2020•42 min•Ep. 32
Tyson Yunkaporta is a writer and member of the Apalech Clan of aboriginal people in Australia. He is the author of a new book called Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, which is one of my favorite books of the year. In this conversation he discusses how aboriginal men are faced with rites of passage today including time spent in prison. Mansal relates his own time spent in prison.
Sep 08, 2020•51 min•Ep. 31
Tah Whitty is a trained nurse, a coach, and facilitator of power plants (psychedelics) like huachuma (San Pedro) and psilocybin. He also happens to be black. In this conversation we start with exploring his refreshing views on racism in these tense times (hint: shaming people rarely proves helpful), how victimization can play a role in furthering one’s own oppression, and how Tah facilitates awakening experiences in participants of his experiences.
Sep 01, 2020•57 min•Ep. 30
I read Stephen Cope’s book “The Great Work of Your Life” many years ago considered by a friend to be the best book he read that year. Cope weaves stories of Henry David Thoreau, the Hindu text Bhagavad Gita, and numerous other stories beautifully to share how and why following one’s life path is so valuable.
Aug 25, 2020•54 min•Ep. 29
Dr. Thomas Cowan has a long history of controversial perspectives. He’s identified water as a plausible cause for cancer, he doesn’t believe vaccines are helpful or healthy, and his latest perspective on 5G and COVID had numerous media outlets in arms. But they may have misunderstood and mischaracterized his perspective. This podcast dives into some of the science and a more open-minded, alternative (though non-conspiratorial) view on COVID.
Aug 18, 2020•49 min•Ep. 28
Jordan Reasoner is a lifelong bow hunter who spends a considerable portion of every year hunting for elk, deer, and bear on public land in Montana and the American West. He is also a man who has done deep inner work, expanded his consciousness using various medicines, and thinks deeply about the gifts of the practice of hunting. We talk about masculinity, the medicine of hunting, and the embodied practice that comes with it.
Aug 11, 2020•53 min•Ep. 27
Will Taegel “Star Heart” is a medicine man and spiritual teacher in the Muskogee/Creek tradition. In addition, he’s an ordained minister, a psychotherapist, and 80 years old so to consider him “wise” would be an understatement. In this podcast, Will reveals his time as part of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s congregation in Atlanta, the transcendent and descendant components of spirituality, and what leadership will be required for the new era beyond 2020.
Aug 04, 2020•54 min•Ep. 26
Dr. Keesha Ewers is a sexologist who has decades of clinical and personal experience with trauma and their impact on the body. Her approach is multidisciplinary mixing Ayurvedic approaches with modern scientific inquiry. She has linked autoimmune disease to undigested anger, low libido to resentment, and others. We discuss how valuable rites of passage are for humans historically and why we need to bring them back.
Jul 25, 2020•59 min•Ep. 25
Dr. Keith Witt is a psychotherapist and integral theorist. This conversation was powerful because I could feel the transmission of wise-elder energy in my body even through the video call. We discuss what integral theory is and how once you know the system, it is easy to see everywhere. We explore his optimism for the future amid the despair of the world currently. We finish by discussing how one develops a relationship to spirituality and the role of shamanism in our species’ past.
Jul 21, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 24
Peter Griffin is a friend, not the character of Family Guy. He co-founded a men’s group with me (Mansal) and we are now up to 7 members with significant fulfillment, meaning, and the potential for co-housing on the horizon. We highly emphasize how valuable community and a feeling of belonging is for our species despite how challenging it is to quantify its value.
Jul 14, 2020•46 min•Ep. 23
Dr. Michael Kessler is a functional medicine practitioner and doctor of chiropractic who has teamed up with Dr. Javdat Karimov to create the HeartQuest software. This heart-rate variability (HRV) software uses frequencies from the heart to map out various eastern medicine practices. They map HRV data onto the chakra system, the Ayurvedic doshas, and meridian system. The software does much more and Dr. Kessler explains how they have verified the devices and why it’s so powerful.
Jul 07, 2020•34 min•Ep. 22
Most people are averse to astrology and for good reason. But Human Design is different. Never claiming to be Truth, it is instead a template to experiment living life based upon the time, date, and location of birth. Given that the moon can alter water on Earth significantly, it would make sense that our time and location of birth may be altered by alignments in the cosmos. Listen with an open mind to how valuable Human Design might be (and how to get started).
Jun 30, 2020•46 min•Ep. 21
Doctor Daniel Stickler is a medical doctor that understands the role of complexity in our health. Dr. Stickler is the founder of the Apeiron Center for Human Potential where he helps clients go from healthy to performing their best. He is on the cutting edge of biologics (peptides, hormones etc), but he and his practice also recognize the value of less quantifiable tools like mental coaching and trauma work. For all you biohackers who want a taste of woo, this is for you.
Jun 23, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 20
Welcome to all the new listeners joining this week. In today's Solocast I'll share how this podcast started, the vision for the future, and why precisely you will benefit from listening. For many curious souls, I will include stories about my time in prison, my psychedelic ayahuasca journeys, and much, much more.
Jun 14, 2020•37 min•Ep. 19
Of the COVID pandemic, one of the most cogent thinkers to emerge was Charles Eisenstein with his piece “The Coronation”. In this epic conversation, Charles illuminates how the most impactful things to change the world have come from the realm of art. He relays the perspectives of indigenous people, how art and beauty is intertwined with their life, and provides the groundwork for listeners to re-imagine what life might look like (in terms of relationships, where we live and more).
Jun 09, 2020•59 min•Ep. 18
The hard sciences often (though not always) affirm ancient wisdom. In this far-ranging conversation, neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Hill shares first how his love of baking has influenced his life, quarantine, and the current chaos in America. He then walks through numerous specific errors people are making with their sleep and how to fix it. Finally, he sheds some light on phenomena like dreams and spiritual experiences.
Jun 02, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 17
Anthony Gustin spent 15 years working hard, achieving in his career, and most recently building the successful company Perfect Keto. But financial and business success does not always lead to psychological, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. Anthony describes how his childhood affected his work habits and what he’s been doing about it over the past year to find more meaning, fulfillment, and healing. Let this be a great reminder that the things we often value the most do not require success....
May 26, 2020•56 min•Ep. 16
Forty-seven years ago in south America, Dr. Luis Eduardo did ayahuasca with Terrence McKenna. It was both of their first times with the medicine. This started a relationship with Terrence, his brother Dennis, and many other great thinkers in the psychedelic, botanist, and indigenous wisdom space. Eduardo Luna studied anthropology of indigenous tribes in south America, their art, and how their mind and spiritual perspectives may be highly valuable for the way of being westerners have come to inha...
May 19, 2020•55 min•Ep. 15
Dennis McKenna is an ethnobotanist and brother of famed psychedelic proponent, Terrence McKenna. In this conversation, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, McKenna shares some insights into what it would look like for humanity to “take our medicine” from this gentle lesson from Earth. We discuss some of the catastrophic risks associated with our current civilization and inquire about how we might marry ancestral and indigenous wisdom to modern science and technology. If we do not up level our wisdom to m...
May 12, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 14
As we question the institutions of our current civilization, it is worth reflecting on core beliefs or stories that may not be true. The common understanding of how species evolve through competition, ruthlessness, and “survival of the fittest” is a myth. While it does have a role, in the grand scheme of things, collaboration and cooperation is much more helpful on a macro level. Mansal breaks down the myth (or rather, puts it in its place) and shares why this applies to your life directly and t...
May 05, 2020•37 min•Ep. 13
This wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Craig Koniver covers how and why be believes spiritual connection, presence, and meaning are cornerstone pieces of a healthful life. Mansal explores how Koniver’s interest in Ancient History informs his medical practice, what’s surprised him about the medical system in this post-coronavirus era, and a series of high-value tactical tools, such as intranasal testosterone and NAD+ injections, for people who want to accelerate their performance.
Apr 28, 2020•52 min•Ep. 12
There is nothing like a global pandemic to create widespread chaos for modern civilization. But this is a relatively gentle nudge. Mansal contemplates the value of true stillness when social and news media creates chaos. He breaks down 3 historical figures who found and utilized stillness amidst some of the deepest crises in human history. As usual, he clarifies tangible tips and tricks on how to cultivate stillness in your quarantine life right now.
Apr 21, 2020•39 min•Ep. 11
